April Blooms Day?

Well, Mother Nature pulled an April Fool’s Day joke on Minnesota gardeners yesterday with several inches of slushy snow. While the pergola in my backyard, coated in snow, looks as lovely as it did in November, the novelty has worn off. I’m ready for spring.
However, inside the house, we have blooms. The red twig dogwood that I brought in for forcing back in February has broken out in dozens of small white flowers. The blooms appear smaller in size than those on the shrub in summer, but it’s been enlightening and enjoyable to watch them emerge from their tiny green pods, to bigger white pods, to full-blown flowers. Forcing branches seems like a great way for eager gardeners to pull an April Fool’s Day joke on Mother Nature.